Educators Call Birthrate Drop Payoff for Sex Ed. Programs

Abstinence and better contraceptive use both have played a part in
reducing the teenage birthrate, the authors of a report announcing the
five-year trend said last week.

And school officials were quick to say they were pleased with the
federal report's findings.

"We are delighted," said Brenda Greene, the school health director
for the National School Boards Association in Alexandria, Va.
"Obviously, school programs play some part in getting kids to abstain
from sexual activity and increase their use of contraceptives if they
are sexually active," she said.

Birthrates among 15- to 19-year-old women fell 12 percent between
1991 and 1996, from 62 births per 1,000 to 54 per 1,000, according to a
report released April 30 by the National Center for Health
Statistics.

Black teenagers, who until recently have had the highest birthrate
of any group in that age range, had the sharpest drop in childbearing,
from 115 births per 1,000 in 1991 to 92 births per 1,000 in 1996, the
report shows.

Hispanic teenagers, who showed more modest declines during the same
period, now have the highest birthrate--102 per 1,000, down from 107
per 1,000 in 1991. The rate for white teenagers, still nearly half that
of black and Hispanic teenagers, fell 9 percent, from 53 births per
1,000 in 1991 to 48 per 1,000 in 1996.

While the NCHS report includes some yearly statistics, it highlights
a five-year sustained downward trend in adolescent childbearing that
spans every state.

The report shows that teenage birthrates, while generally higher in
the South and lower in the North, dropped in all 50 states and the
District of Columbia between 1991 and 1996.

In addition, pregnancy and abortion rates among adolescents have
dropped during the same period, other research has shown.

"This report shows that our concerted effort to reduce teen
pregnancy is succeeding," Donna E. Shalala, the secretary of the U.S.
Department of Health and Human Services, said in releasing the study.
"The federal government, the private sector, and parents are all
helping to send a message: Don't become a parent until you are truly
ready to support a child," she said.

Taking Credit

The decline in adolescent childbearing is due partly to better use
of contraceptives and partly to a leveling-off of sexual activity among
young people, the report's authors say. Earlier studies have shown that
the proportion of 15- to 19-year-old women who were sexually active
decreased from 55 percent in 1990 to 50 percent in 1995.

Kristin Hansen, the spokeswoman for the Family Research Council, a
conservative group based in Washington, said the statistics show that
courses that teach young people to abstain from sexual intercourse are
having a positive effect.

"The numbers may be getting better because maybe Generation X-ers
want to do things differently than their parents and are holding out
[from having sex] until marriage," Ms. Hansen said.

Other, more liberal groups also hailed the study as evidence of the
increasingly widespread use of contraceptives among sexually active
teenagers.

"The concern over sexually transmitted diseases and HIV is driving a
lot of the awareness and contributing to an increase in condom use
among teens," said Susan Tew, a spokeswoman for the Allan Guttmacher
Institute, a New York City-based research group.

The decline in teenage birthrates in recent years may also be due to
the increased popularity of reliable long-term contraceptives such as
Norplant or Depo Provera, which were not widely available 10 years ago,
the federal report says.

"We want to help them make better life decisions so they can
maximize their choices, and this [study] shows that that message is
getting out there," said Rosetta Stith, the director of the Paquin
School, a 600-student public high school for pregnant teenagers in
Baltimore. But Ms. Stith added that this study underscores the need for
educators to continue to make the risks of pregnancy, AIDS, and
childrearing real for students in the classroom.

"Many educators seem to be concerned with all the information that
goes into one's head, from the neck up, but when it comes to discussing
what goes on below the belt, everybody wants to be hush-hush about it,"
Ms. Stith said.

Vol. 17, Issue 35, Page 6

Published in Print: May 13, 1998, as Educators Call Birthrate Drop Payoff for Sex Ed. Programs

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